October 5, 2015

CHOU | Fall into the Trap

As a new blogger who plans to write about K-pop – if not about Chinese, Taiwanese and Japanese forms of entertainment as well – I thought it would be nice to tell you guys a bit about how I got into K-pop in the first place. After all, it amazes even myself that I have been intrigued by music of a foreign language for so many years and counting.

My wonderful venture into the K-pop world began in the eighth grade, prior to which I was interested mainly in anime and manga and the occasional Taiwanese dramas that aired on television. As implied, my family and I watch Asian TV series as opposed to American ones, so it was inevitable for me to be exposed to K-pop at some point in my life. But when the Hallyu Wave first struck Taiwan with Super Junior’s “Sorry Sorry” and Wonder Girls’s “Nobody,” I was hesitant about accepting a new style of music that, to me, appeared out of nowhere. I did not understand why so many people enjoyed the songs if they couldn’t even understand the Korean lyrics. It wasn’t until a few years later that I saw how beautiful K-pop actually is and how unnecessary understanding the lyrics is as well.

My life completely changed in 2011. It was during lunch one day when I overheard my friends talking about who they wanted the female lead of a show to end up with. When I asked them what they were talking about, they told me the name of the show and all convinced me to watch it. That show – or drama – was Dream High and it became the first K-drama that I ever watched.

Dream High led to my researching the various K-pop groups that the actors and actresses were in because despite certain criticisms from netizens, I thought everyone in the drama was really talented.

Not long after, my mom’s friend recommended another drama – You’re Beautiful. I ended up liking Shin Woo’s character so much that I searched up the actor who played his role and fell in love with CNBLUE. But my love for CNBLUE will never compare to the one I had for DBSK and now EXO.

DBSK, or TVXQ as some people like to refer to them as, was the first group that I really followed. I watched most, if not all, of the variety show episodes that they appeared on, collected a few of their albums, influenced my cousin into loving them too and even made them my cover photo on Facebook. Unfortunately for me, however, by the time I even knew about DBSK, they had already disbanded. Three of the five members had filed a lawsuit against the company and ultimately created a new boy band called JYJ, while the remaining two members continued the legacy of DBSK. But as their situation is much more complicated than this one-sentence explanation, believe me when I say that it is the company’s fault and not any of the members’.

While I am still a fan of DBSK – I like to call the original five-member group DBSK and the new two-member group TVXQ – I found it disappointing to remain completely faithful to them because all of their shows and songs were years old. So after two years of only liking DBSK, I eventually found a new group to follow in my junior year of high school – EXO.

When EXO first came out, I thought that they were overrated despite constantly being on the news and having so many teasers for their debut. But when I took the time to watch EXO Showtime, I could not stop myself from becoming a fan. Each member is funny and talented in his own way, and being able to distinguish one member from another is such an accomplishment – you’ll know what I mean when you search them for the first time. Unfortunately, EXO is under the same company as DBSK, so a few members of EXO have also filed lawsuits and left the group. The EXO now will never be the same as the EXO in 2012 when they first debuted, but I still like them nonetheless.

Somewhere in my discovery of K-pop, SHINee’s “Lucifer” became the first K-pop music video that really caught my attention; while I do not remember exactly when I saw it, I can definitely say that Taemin’s long hair was unforgettable.

With that said, I would like to end here or else I won’t be able to stop gushing on and on about which music videos struck me the hardest and which groups I like the most. Keep in mind that this is only a tiny portion of my entire K-pop experience and that anyone, including you, can unknowingly fall into the trap that is K-pop, too.

The last couple of days in Ithaca have been pretty cold. It has reached the point where shorts and flip flops have become untenable and strolling outside into the morning air no longer feels warm and comforting.